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107-514: The Amazon rainforest , also called Amazon jungle or Amazonia , is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America . This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 6,000,000 km (2,300,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest . This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 indigenous territories . The majority of

214-625: A warlike tribe that expanded along the Tapajós river and its tributaries and were feared by neighboring tribes. In the early 19th century, the Munduruku were pacified and subjugated by the Brazilians. During the Amazon rubber boom it is estimated that diseases brought by immigrants, such as typhus and malaria , killed 40,000 native Amazonians. In the 1950s, Brazilian explorer and defender of indigenous people, Cândido Rondon , supported

321-537: A few days downriver by ascending another river to the north. De Orellana took about 57 men, the boat, and some canoes and left Pizarro's troops on 26 December 1541. However, De Orellana missed the confluence (probably with the Aguarico ) where he was searching supplies for his men. By the time he and his men reached another village, many of them were sick from hunger and eating "noxious plants", and near death. Seven men died in that village. His men threatened to mutiny if

428-708: A few hills, and the river enters the enormous Amazon rainforest . Although the Ucayali–Marañón confluence is the point at which most geographers place the beginning of the Amazon River proper, in Brazil the river is known at this point as the Solimões das Águas . The river systems and flood plains in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, whose waters drain into the Solimões and its tributaries, are called

535-469: A fourth found it profitable to navigate some of the smaller streams. In that same period, the Amazonas Company was increasing its fleet. Meanwhile, private individuals were building and running small steam craft of their own on the main river as well as on many of its tributaries. On 31 July 1867, the government of Brazil, constantly pressed by the maritime powers and by the countries encircling

642-421: A hazard. Among the largest predatory creatures are the black caiman , jaguar , cougar , and anaconda . In the river, electric eels can produce an electric shock that can stun or kill, while piranha are known to bite and injure humans. Various species of poison dart frogs secrete lipophilic alkaloid toxins through their flesh. There are also numerous parasites and disease vectors. Vampire bats dwell in

749-491: A population of 1.9 million people in 2014, Manaus is the largest city on the Amazon. Manaus alone makes up approximately 50% of the population of the largest Brazilian state of Amazonas . The racial makeup of the city is 64% pardo (mulatto and mestizo) and 32% white . Although the Amazon river remains undammed, around 412 dams are in operation on the Amazon's tributary rivers. Of these 412 dams, 151 are constructed over six of

856-418: A pristine wilderness , has been shaped by man for at least 11,000 years through practices such as forest gardening and terra preta . Terra preta is found over large areas in the Amazon forest; and is now widely accepted as a product of indigenous soil management . The development of this fertile soil allowed agriculture and silviculture in the previously hostile environment; meaning that large portions of

963-502: A quarter of the Earth's oxygen, this often stated, but misused statistic actually refers to oxygen turnover. The net contribution of the ecosystem is approximately zero. One computer model of future climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions shows that the Amazon rainforest could become unsustainable under conditions of severely reduced rainfall and increased temperatures, leading to an almost complete loss of rainforest cover in

1070-632: A record number of fires. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose more than 88% in June 2019 compared with the same month in 2018. The increased area of fire-impacted forest coincided with a relaxation of environmental regulations from the Brazilian government. Notably, before those regulations were put in place in 2008 the fire-impacted area was also larger compared to the regulation period of 2009–2018. As these fire continue to move closer to

1177-485: A second line to make six round voyages a year between Manaus and Tabatinga, and a third, two trips a month between Pará and Cametá. This was the first step in opening up the vast interior. The success of the venture called attention to the opportunities for economic exploitation of the Amazon, and a second company soon opened commerce on the Madeira, Purús, and Negro; a third established a line between Pará and Manaus, and

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1284-811: Is believed that the drainage basin of the Amazon was split along the middle of the continent by the Purus Arch . Water on the eastern side flowed toward the Atlantic , while to the west water flowed toward the Pacific across the Amazonas Basin . As the Andes Mountains rose, however, a large basin was created that enclosed a lake; now known as the Solimões Basin . Within the last 5–10 million years, this accumulating water broke through

1391-524: Is considerable, and areas cleared of forest are visible to the naked eye from outer space. In the 1970s, construction began on the Trans-Amazonian highway . This highway represented a major threat to the Amazon rainforest. The highway still has not been completed, limiting the environmental damage. Between 1991 and 2000, the total area of forest lost in the Amazon rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km (160,000 to 227,000 sq mi), with most of

1498-495: Is economic as well as biological incentive to protecting the rainforest. One hectare in the Peruvian Amazon has been calculated to have a value of $ 6820 if intact forest is sustainably harvested for fruits, latex, and timber; $ 1000 if clear-cut for commercial timber (not sustainably harvested); or $ 148 if used as cattle pasture. As indigenous territories continue to be destroyed by deforestation and ecocide (such as in

1605-423: Is estimated at 356 ± 47 tonnes per hectare. To date, an estimated 438,000 species of plants of economic and social interest have been registered in the region with many more remaining to be discovered or catalogued. The total number of tree species in the region is estimated at 16,000. The green leaf area of plants and trees in the rainforest varies by about 25% as a result of seasonal changes. Leaves expand during

1712-521: Is generally found in large, discontinuous patches centered on the equatorial belt and between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn , TSMF are characterized by low variability in annual temperature and high levels of rainfall of more than 2,000 mm (79 in) annually. Forest composition is dominated by evergreen and semi-deciduous tree species. These forests are home to more species than any other terrestrial ecosystem on Earth: Half of

1819-609: Is home to many of the forest's animals, including apes and monkeys . Below the canopy, a lower understory hosts to snakes and big cats . The forest floor, relatively clear of undergrowth due to the thick canopy above, is prowled by other animals such as gorillas and deer . All levels of these forests contain an unparalleled diversity of invertebrate species, including New Guinea 's stick insects and butterflies that can grow over 30 cm (1 ft) in length. Many forests are being cleared for farmland , while others are subject to large-scale commercial logging . An area

1926-409: Is that the deal could lead to more deforestation of the Amazon rainforest as it expands market access to Brazilian beef. According to a November 2021 report by Brazil's INPE , based on satellite data , deforestation has increased by 22% over 2020 and is at its highest level since 2006. There were 72,843 fires in Brazil in 2019, with more than half within the Amazon region. In August 2019 there were

2033-798: Is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, and the longest or second-longest river system in the world , a title which is disputed with the Nile . The headwaters of the Apurímac River on Nevado Mismi had been considered for nearly a century the Amazon basin 's most distant source until a 2014 study found it to be the headwaters of the Mantaro River on the Cordillera Rumi Cruz in Peru . The Mantaro and Apurímac rivers join, and with other tributaries form

2140-565: Is the conversion of forested areas to non-forested areas. The main sources of deforestation in the Amazon are human settlement and the development of the land. In 2022, about 20% of the Amazon rainforest has already been deforested and a further 6% was "highly degraded". Research suggests that upon reaching about 20–25% (hence 0–5% more), the tipping point to flip it into a non-forest ecosystem – degraded savannah – (in eastern, southern and central Amazonia) will be reached. This process of savanisation would take decades to take full effect. Prior to

2247-477: Is the largest drainage basin in the world, with an area of approximately 7,000,000 km (2,700,000 sq mi). The portion of the river's drainage basin in Brazil alone is larger than any other river's basin. The Amazon enters Brazil with only one-fifth of the flow it finally discharges into the Atlantic Ocean , yet already has a greater flow at this point than the discharge of any other river in

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2354-466: Is the largest river branch one encounters when journeying upstream, and lies farther to the west than any other tributary of the Amazon. For most of the 18th–19th centuries and into the 20th century, the Marañón was generally considered the source of the Amazon. Early scientific, zoological, and botanical exploration of the Amazon River and basin took place from the 18th century through the first half of

2461-712: The Amazon warriors , a tribe of women warriors related to Iranian Scythians and Sarmatians mentioned in Greek mythology . The word Amazon itself may be derived from the Iranian compound * ha-maz-an- "(one) fighting together" or ethnonym * ha-mazan- "warriors", a word attested indirectly through a derivation, a denominal verb in Hesychius of Alexandria 's gloss "ἁμαζακάραν· πολεμεῖν. Πέρσαι" (" hamazakaran : 'to make war' in Persian"), where it appears together with

2568-469: The Eocene era (from 56 million years to 33.9 million years ago). It appeared following a global reduction of tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened sufficiently to provide a warm, moist climate to the Amazon basin. The rainforest has been in existence for at least 55 million years, and most of the region remained free of savanna -type biomes at least until the current ice age when

2675-578: The Indo-Iranian root * kar- "make" (from which Sanskrit karma is also derived). Other scholars claim that the name is derived from the Tupi word amassona , meaning "boat destroyer". Recent geological studies suggest that for millions of years the Amazon River used to flow in the opposite direction - from east to west. Eventually the Andes Mountains formed, blocking its flow to

2782-519: The Pacific Ocean , and causing it to switch directions to its current mouth in the Atlantic Ocean . During what many archaeologists called the formative stage , Amazonian societies were deeply involved in the emergence of South America's highland agrarian systems. The trade with Andean civilizations in the terrains of the headwaters in the Andes formed an essential contribution to

2889-577: The Peruvian Amazon ), indigenous peoples ' rainforest communities continue to disappear, while others, like the Urarina continue to struggle to fight for their cultural survival and the fate of their forested territories. Meanwhile, the relationship between non-human primates in the subsistence and symbolism of indigenous lowland South American peoples has gained increased attention, as have ethno-biology and community-based conservation efforts. Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests TSMF

2996-788: The Río Apurímac . A 2014 study by Americans James Contos and Nicolas Tripcevich in Area , a peer-reviewed journal of the Royal Geographical Society , however, identifies the most distant source of the Amazon as actually being in the Río Mantaro drainage. A variety of methods were used to compare the lengths of the Mantaro river vs. the Apurímac river from their most distant source points to their confluence, showing

3103-707: The Ucayali River , which in turn meets the Marañón River upstream of Iquitos, Peru , forming what countries other than Brazil consider to be the main stem of the Amazon. Brazilians call this section the Solimões River above its confluence with the Rio Negro forming what Brazilians call the Amazon at the Meeting of Waters ( Portuguese : Encontro das Águas ) at Manaus , the largest city on

3210-579: The Villas-Bôas brothers ' campaign, which faced strong opposition from the government and the ranchers of Mato Grosso and led to the establishment of the first Brazilian National Park for indigenous people along the Xingu River in 1961. In 1961, British explorer Richard Mason was killed by an uncontacted Amazon tribe known as the Panará . The Matsés made their first permanent contact with

3317-568: The rubber boom it is estimated that diseases brought by immigrants, such as typhus and malaria , killed 40,000 native Amazonians. The first direct foreign trade with Manaus commenced around 1874. Local trade along the river was carried on by the English successors to the Amazonas Company—the Amazon Steam Navigation Company—as well as numerous small steamboats, belonging to companies and firms engaged in

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3424-604: The upper Amazon basin, especially Peru, decreed the opening of the Amazon to all countries, but they limited this to certain defined points: Tabatinga – on the Amazon; Cametá – on the Tocantins; Santarém – on the Tapajós; Borba – on the Madeira, and Manaus – on the Rio Negro. The Brazilian decree took effect on 7 September 1867. Thanks in part to the mercantile development associated with steamboat navigation coupled with

3531-671: The "Companhia de Navegação e Comércio do Amazonas" in Rio de Janeiro in 1852; in the following year it commenced operations with four small steamers, the Monarca ('Monarch'), the Cametá , the Marajó and the Rio Negro . At first, navigation was principally confined to the main river; and even in 1857 a modification of the government contract only obliged the company to a monthly service between Pará and Manaus, with steamers of 200 tons cargo capacity,

3638-587: The "Upper Amazon". The Amazon proper runs mostly through Brazil and Peru, and is part of the border between Colombia and Peru. It has a series of major tributaries in Colombia , Ecuador and Peru , some of which flow into the Marañón and Ucayali , and others directly into the Amazon proper. These include rivers Putumayo , Caquetá , Vaupés , Guainía , Morona , Pastaza , Nucuray, Urituyacu, Chambira , Tigre , Nanay , Napo , and Huallaga . At some points,

3745-623: The "land without people" in the Amazon Basin. This was done in conjunction with infrastructure projects mainly the Trans-Amazonian Highway ( Transamazônica ). The Trans-Amazonian Highway's three pioneering highways were completed within ten years but never fulfilled their promise. Large portions of the Trans-Amazonian and its accessory roads, such as BR-317 (Manaus- Porto Velho ), are derelict and impassable in

3852-518: The 19th century. The Cabanagem revolt (1835–1840) was directed against the white ruling class. It is estimated that from 30% to 40% of the population of Grão-Pará , estimated at 100,000 people, died. The population of the Brazilian portion of the Amazon basin in 1850 was perhaps 300,000, of whom about 175,000 were Europeans and 25,000 were slaves. The Brazilian Amazon's principal commercial city, Pará (now Belém), had from 10,000 to 12,000 inhabitants, including slaves. The town of Manáos, now Manaus, at

3959-538: The 20th century. Wary of foreign exploitation of the nation's resources, Brazilian governments in the 1940s set out to develop the interior, away from the seaboard where foreigners owned large tracts of land. The original architect of this expansion was president Getúlio Vargas , with the demand for rubber from the Allied forces in World War II providing funding for the drive. In the 1960s, economic exploitation of

4066-413: The Amazon River." In March 1500, Spanish conquistador Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was the first documented European to sail up the Amazon River. Pinzón called the stream Río Santa María del Mar Dulce , later shortened to Mar Dulce , literally, sweet sea , because of its freshwater pushing out into the ocean. Another Spanish explorer, Francisco de Orellana , was the first European to travel from

4173-582: The Amazon basin was seen as a way to fuel the "economic miracle" occurring at the time. This resulted in the development of "Operation Amazon", an economic development project that brought large-scale agriculture and ranching to Amazonia. This was done through a combination of credit and fiscal incentives. However, in the 1970s the government took a new approach with the National Integration Program (PIN). A large-scale colonization program saw families from northeastern Brazil relocated to

4280-481: The Amazon in 1492. By 1900, the native indigenous population had fallen to 1 million and by the early 1980s it was less than 200,000. The first European to travel the length of the Amazon River was Francisco de Orellana in 1542. The BBC's Unnatural Histories presents evidence that Orellana, rather than exaggerating his claims as previously thought, was correct in his observations that a complex civilization

4387-416: The Amazon in 1541, more than 3 million indigenous people lived around the Amazon. These pre-Columbian settlements created highly developed civilizations. For instance, pre-Columbian indigenous people on the island of Marajó may have developed social stratification and supported a population of 100,000 people. To achieve this level of development, the indigenous inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest altered

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4494-524: The Amazon rainforest are probably the result of centuries of human management, rather than naturally occurring as has previously been supposed. In the region of the Xingu tribe, remains of some of these large settlements in the middle of the Amazon forest were found in 2003 by Michael Heckenberger and colleagues of the University of Florida . Among those were evidence of roads, bridges and large plazas. In

4601-726: The Amazon rainforest comes from the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad in the Sahara desert. The dust contains phosphorus , important for plant growth. The yearly Sahara dust replaces the equivalent amount of phosphorus washed away yearly in Amazon soil from rains and floods. NASA's CALIPSO satellite has measured the amount of dust transported by wind from the Sahara to the Amazon: an average of 182 million tons of dust are windblown out of

4708-421: The Amazon region at least 11,200 years ago. Subsequent development led to late-prehistoric settlements along the periphery of the forest by AD 1250, which induced alterations in the forest cover . For a long time, it was thought that the Amazon rainforest was never more than sparsely populated, as it was impossible to sustain a large population through agriculture given the poor soil. Archeologist Betty Meggers

4815-513: The Amazon river is about 80 km longer than previously thought. Contos continued downstream to the ocean and finished the first complete descent of the Amazon river from its newly identified source (finishing November 2012), a journey repeated by two groups after the news spread. After about 700 km (430 mi), the Apurímac then joins Río Mantaro to form the Ene, which joins the Perene to form

4922-403: The Amazon will harm its biodiversity in the same way by "blocking fish-spawning runs, reducing the flows of vital oil nutrients and clearing forests". Damming the Amazon River could potentially bring about the "end of free flowing rivers" and contribute to an " ecosystem collapse " that will cause major social and environmental problems. The most distant source of the Amazon was thought to be in

5029-492: The Amazon's rich natural resources. Deforestation reached a 15 year high in 2021. Since the discovery of fossil fuel reservoirs in the Amazon rainforest, oil drilling activity has steadily increased, peaking in the Western Amazon in the 1970s and ushering another drilling boom in the 2000s. Oil companies have to set up their operations by opening new roads through the forests, which often contributes to deforestation in

5136-409: The Amazon, investigating many of its tributaries, including the Rio Negro, and covering a distance of over 10,000 km (6,200 mi). In what is currently in Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela, several colonial and religious settlements were established along the banks of primary rivers and tributaries for trade, slaving , and evangelization among the indigenous peoples of

5243-517: The Amazon. This led to deforestation, different environmental and social problems. Hydropower also creates significant problems in the Amazon. Such activities are defined by the World Rainforest Movement as " Green extractivism ". The European Union–Mercosur free trade agreement , which would form one of the world's largest free trade areas, has been denounced by environmental activists and indigenous rights campaigners. The fear

5350-784: The Amazonas, there has been fighting and wars between the neighboring tribes of the Jivaro . Several tribes of the Jivaroan group, including the Shuar , practised headhunting for trophies and headshrinking . The accounts of missionaries to the area in the borderlands between Brazil and Venezuela have recounted constant infighting in the Yanomami tribes. More than a third of the Yanomamo males, on average, died from warfare. The Munduruku were

5457-564: The Apurímac river drainage for nearly a century. Such studies continued to be published even as recently as 1996, 2001, 2007, and 2008, where various authors identified the snowcapped 5,597 m (18,363 ft) Nevado Mismi peak, located roughly 160 km (99 mi) west of Lake Titicaca and 700 km (430 mi) southeast of Lima , as the most distant source of the river. From that point, Quebrada Carhuasanta emerges from Nevado Mismi, joins Quebrada Apacheta and soon forms Río Lloqueta which becomes Río Hornillos and eventually joins

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5564-598: The Portuguese portion of the Amazon basin has remained a land largely undeveloped by agriculture and occupied by indigenous people who survived the arrival of European diseases. Four centuries after the European discovery of the Amazon river, the total cultivated area in its basin was probably less than 65 km (25 sq mi), excluding the limited and crudely cultivated areas among the mountains at its extreme headwaters. This situation changed dramatically during

5671-629: The Purus Arch, joining the easterly flow toward the Atlantic. There is evidence that there have been significant changes in the Amazon rainforest vegetation over the last 21,000 years through the last glacial maximum (LGM) and subsequent deglaciation. Analyses of sediment deposits from Amazon basin paleolakes and the Amazon Fan indicate that rainfall in the basin during the LGM was lower than for

5778-544: The Sahara each year (some dust falls into the Atlantic), 15% of which of falls over the Amazon basin (22 million tons of it consisting of phosphorus). CALIPSO uses a laser range finder to scan the Earth's atmosphere for the vertical distribution of dust and other aerosols. and regularly tracks the Sahara-Amazon dust plume. CALIPSO has measured variations in the dust amounts transported – an 86 percent drop between

5885-439: The Tambo, which joins the Urubamba River to form the Ucayali. After the confluence of Apurímac and Ucayali, the river leaves Andean terrain and is surrounded by floodplain . From this point to the confluence of the Ucayali and the Marañón, some 1,600 km (990 mi), the forested banks are just above the water and are inundated long before the river attains its maximum flood stage. The low river banks are interrupted by only

5992-527: The basin by 2100., and severe economic, natural capital and ecosystem services impacts of not averting the tipping point. However, simulations of Amazon basin climate change across many different models are not consistent in their estimation of any rainfall response, ranging from weak increases to strong decreases. The result indicates that the rainforest could be threatened through the 21st century by climate change in addition to deforestation. In 1989, environmentalist C.M. Peters and two colleagues stated there

6099-407: The climate was drier and savanna more widespread. Following the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event , the extinction of the dinosaurs and the wetter climate may have allowed the tropical rainforest to spread out across the continent. From 66 to 34 Mya , the rainforest extended as far south as 45° . Climate fluctuations during the last 34 million years have allowed savanna regions to expand into

6206-419: The dry season when sunlight is at a maximum, then undergo abscission in the cloudy wet season. These changes provide a balance of carbon between photosynthesis and respiration. Each hectare of the Amazon rainforest contains around 1 billion of invertebrates . The amount of species per hectare in the Amazon rainforest can be presented in the next table: The rainforest contains several species that can pose

6313-587: The early 1960s, access to the forest's interior was highly restricted, and the forest remained basically intact. Farms established during the 1960s were based on crop cultivation and the slash and burn method. However, the colonists were unable to manage their fields and the crops because of the loss of soil fertility and weed invasion. The soils in the Amazon are productive for just a short period of time, so farmers are constantly moving to new areas and clearing more land. These farming practices led to deforestation and caused extensive environmental damage. Deforestation

6420-447: The expedition turned back to attempt to rejoin Pizarro, the party being over 100 leagues downstream at this point. He accepted to change the purpose of the expedition to discover new lands in the name of the king of Spain, and the men built a larger boat in which to navigate downstream. After a journey of 600 km (370 mi) down the Napo River, they reached a further major confluence, at a point near modern Iquitos , and then followed

6527-401: The family Lauraceae ) are fairly common in that part of the Amazon and Pizarro probably saw some of these. The expedition reached the mouth of the Amazon on 24 August 1542, demonstrating the practical navigability of the Great River. In 1560, another Spanish conquistador , Lope de Aguirre , may have made the second descent of the Amazon. Historians are uncertain whether the river he descended

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6634-431: The forest appears as an unending sea of green, broken only by occasional, taller "emergent" trees. These towering emergents are the realm of hornbills , toucans , and the harpy eagle . In general, biodiversity is highest in the forest canopy. The canopy can be divided into five layers: overstory canopy with emergent crowns , a medium layer of canopy, lower canopy, shrub level, and finally understory. The canopy

6741-658: The forest's ecology by selective cultivation and the use of fire. Scientists argue that by burning areas of the forest repeatedly, the indigenous people caused the soil to become richer in nutrients. This created dark soil areas known as terra preta de índio ("Indian dark earth"). Because of the terra preta, indigenous communities were able to make land fertile and thus sustainable for the large-scale agriculture needed to support their large populations and complex social structures. Further research has hypothesized that this practice began around 11,000 years ago. Some say that its effects on forest ecology and regional climate explain

6848-418: The forest, 60%, is in Brazil , followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Bolivia , Ecuador , French Guiana , Guyana , Suriname , and Venezuela . Four nations have " Amazonas " as the name of one of their first-level administrative regions , and France uses the name " Guiana Amazonian Park " for French Guiana's protected rainforest area. The Amazon represents over half of

6955-459: The heart of the Amazon basin, their impact on biodiversity will only increase in scale, as the cumulative fire-impacted area is correlated with the number of species impacted. Environmentalists are concerned about loss of biodiversity that will result from destruction of the forest , and also about the release of the carbon contained within the vegetation, which could accelerate global warming . Amazonian evergreen forests account for about 10% of

7062-408: The highest amount of dust transported in 2007 and the lowest in 2011. This is possibly causing by rainfall variations is the Sahel , a strip of semi-arid land on the southern border of the Sahara.. Amazon phosphorus also comes as smoke due to biomass burning in Africa. Wet tropical forests are the most species-rich biome , and tropical forests in the Americas are consistently more species rich than

7169-490: The internationally driven demand for natural rubber , the Peruvian city of Iquitos became a thriving, cosmopolitan center of commerce. Foreign companies settled in Iquitos, from where they controlled the extraction of rubber. In 1851 Iquitos had a population of 200, and by 1900 its population reached 20,000. In the 1860s, approximately 3,000 tons of rubber were being exported annually, and by 1911 annual exports had grown to 44,000 tons, representing 9.3% of Peru's exports. During

7276-412: The longer length of the Mantaro. Then distances from Lago Junín to several potential source points in the uppermost Mantaro river were measured, which enabled them to determine that the Cordillera Rumi Cruz was the most distant source of water in the Mantaro basin (and therefore in the entire Amazon basin). The most accurate measurement method was direct GPS measurement obtained by kayak descent of each of

7383-413: The lost forest becoming pasture for cattle. Seventy percent of formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, have been used for livestock pasture . Currently, Brazil is the largest global producer of soybeans . New research however, conducted by Leydimere Oliveira et al., has shown that the more rainforest is logged in the Amazon, the less precipitation reaches the area and so

7490-560: The lower the yield per hectare becomes. So despite the popular perception, there has been no economical advantage for Brazil from logging rainforest zones and converting these to pastoral fields. The needs of soy farmers have been used to justify many of the controversial transportation projects that are currently developing in the Amazon. The first two highways successfully opened up the rainforest and led to increased settlement and deforestation. The mean annual deforestation rate from 2000 to 2005 (22,392 km or 8,646 sq mi per year)

7597-440: The main tributary rivers that drain into the Amazon. Since only 4% of the Amazon's hydropower potential has been developed in countries like Brazil, more damming projects are underway and hundreds more are planned. After witnessing the negative effects of environmental degradation, sedimentation, navigation and flood control caused by the Three Gorges Dam in the Yangtze River, scientists are worried that constructing more dams in

7704-461: The mouth of the Rio Negro, had a population between 1,000 and 1,500. All the remaining villages, as far up as Tabatinga , on the Brazilian frontier of Peru, were relatively small. On 6 September 1850, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil sanctioned a law authorizing steam navigation on the Amazon and gave the Viscount of Mauá ( Irineu Evangelista de Sousa ) the task of putting it into effect. He organised

7811-581: The name ). Gonzalo Pizarro set off in 1541 to explore east of Quito into the South American interior in search of El Dorado , the "city of gold" and La Canela , the "valley of cinnamon ". He was accompanied by his second-in-command Francisco de Orellana . After 170 km (106 mi), the Coca River joined the Napo River (at a point now known as Puerto Francisco de Orellana );

7918-502: The origins of the upstream river basins, situated in the Andes , to the mouth of the river. In this journey, Orellana baptized some of the affluents of the Amazonas like Rio Negro , Napo and Jurua . The name Amazonas is thought to be taken from the native warriors that attacked this expedition, mostly women, that reminded De Orellana of the mythical female Amazon warriors from the ancient Hellenic culture in Greece (see also Origin of

8025-507: The otherwise inexplicable band of lower rainfall through the Amazon basin . Many indigenous tribes engaged in constant warfare . According to James S. Olson , "The Munduruku expansion (in the 18th century) dislocated and displaced the Kawahíb , breaking the tribe down into much smaller groups ... [Munduruku] first came to the attention of Europeans in 1770 when they began a series of widespread attacks on Brazilian settlements along

8132-501: The outside world in 1969. Before that date, they were effectively at-war with the Peruvian government. Nine countries share the Amazon basin—most of the rainforest, 58.4%, is contained within the borders of Brazil. The other eight countries are Peru with 12.8%, Bolivia with 7.7%, Colombia with 7.1%, Venezuela with 6.1%, Guyana with 3.1%, Suriname with 2.5%, French Guiana with 1.4% and Ecuador with 1%. The rainforest likely formed during

8239-486: The party stopped for a few weeks to build a boat just upriver from this confluence. They continued downriver through an uninhabited area, where they could not find food. Orellana offered and was ordered to follow the Napo River, then known as Río de la Canela ("Cinnamon River"), and return with food for the party. Based on intelligence received from a captive native chief named Delicola, they expected to find food within

8346-409: The present, and this was almost certainly associated with reduced moist tropical vegetation cover in the basin. In present day, the Amazon receives approximately 9 feet of rainfall annually. There is a debate, however, over how extensive this reduction was. Some scientists argue that the rainforest was reduced to small, isolated refugia separated by open forest and grassland; other scientists argue that

8453-436: The rainforest and can spread the rabies virus. Malaria , yellow fever and dengue fever can also be contracted in the Amazon region. The biodiversity in the Amazon is becoming increasingly threatened, primarily by habitat loss from deforestation as well as increased frequency of fires. Over 90% of Amazonian plant and vertebrate species (13,000–14,000 in total) may have been impacted to some degree by fires. Deforestation

8560-408: The rainforest remained largely intact but extended less far to the north, south, and east than is seen today. This debate has proved difficult to resolve because the practical limitations of working in the rainforest mean that data sampling is biased away from the center of the Amazon basin, and both explanations are reasonably well supported by the available data. More than 56% of the dust fertilizing

8667-480: The rainy season. Small towns and villages are scattered across the forest, and because its vegetation is so dense, some remote areas are still unexplored. Many settlements grew along the road from Brasília to Belém with the highway and National Integration Program, however, the program failed as the settlers were unequipped to live in the delicate rainforest ecosystem. This, although the government believed it could sustain millions, instead could sustain very few. With

8774-450: The region was actually densely populated. The Upano Valley sites in present-day eastern Ecuador predate all known complex Amazonian societies. Some 5 million people may have lived in the Amazon region in AD 1500, divided between dense coastal settlements, such as that at Marajó , and inland dwellers. Based on projections of food production, one estimate suggests over 8 million people living in

8881-546: The region. The name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with the Tapuyas and other tribes. The women of the tribe fought alongside the men, as was their custom. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the Amazons of Greek mythology , described by Herodotus and Diodorus . Based on archaeological evidence from an excavation at Caverna da Pedra Pintada , human inhabitants first settled in

8988-480: The region. 9.4% of the territory of the Amazon is affected by oil fields. Mining is also a major driver of deforestation. 17% of the area of the Amazon Rainforest is affected by mining. The transition to solar and wind energy, digitalization, raised the demand for cassiterite (the main ore of tin used also for financing gold mining ), manganese and copper , which attracrted many illegal miners to

9095-699: The region. One in five of all bird species are found in the Amazon rainforest, and one in five of the fish species live in Amazonian rivers and streams. Scientists have described between 96,660 and 128,843 invertebrate species in Brazil alone. The biodiversity of plant species is the highest on Earth with one 2001 study finding a quarter square kilometer (62 acres) of Ecuadorian rainforest supports more than 1,100 tree species. A study in 1999 found one square kilometer (247 acres) of Amazon rainforest can contain about 90,790 tonnes of living plants. The average plant biomass

9202-481: The river divides into anabranches , or multiple channels, often very long, with inland and lateral channels , all connected by a complicated system of natural canals, cutting the low, flat igapó lands, which are never more than 5 m (16 ft) above low river, into many islands. From the town of Canaria at the great bend of the Amazon to the Negro, vast areas of land are submerged at high water, above which only

9309-437: The river. The Amazon River has an average discharge of about 215,000–230,000 m /s (7,600,000–8,100,000 cu ft/s)—approximately 6,591–7,570 km (1,581–1,816 cu mi) per year, greater than the next seven largest independent rivers combined. Two of the top ten rivers by discharge are tributaries of the Amazon river. The Amazon represents 20% of the global riverine discharge into oceans. The Amazon basin

9416-417: The rivers from their source points to their confluence (performed by Contos). Obtaining these measurements was difficult given the class IV–V nature of each of these rivers, especially in their lower "Abyss" sections. Ultimately, they determined that the most distant point in the Mantaro drainage is nearly 80 km farther upstream compared to Mt. Mismi in the Apurímac drainage, and thus the maximal length of

9523-494: The rubber trade, navigating the Negro, Madeira, Purús, and many other tributaries, such as the Marañón, to ports as distant as Nauta , Peru. By the turn of the 20th century, the exports of the Amazon basin were India-rubber , cacao beans , Brazil nuts and a few other products of minor importance, such as pelts and exotic forest produce ( resins , barks, woven hammocks , prized bird feathers , live animals) and extracted goods, such as lumber and gold. Since colonial times,

9630-530: The second type of mounds. They are best represented by the Marajoara culture . Figurative mounds are the most recent types of occupation. There is ample evidence that the areas surrounding the Amazon River were home to complex and large-scale indigenous societies, mainly chiefdoms who developed towns and cities. Archaeologists estimate that by the time the Spanish conquistador De Orellana traveled across

9737-759: The size of Ireland is destroyed every few years. The biome includes several types of forests: A number of TSMF ecoregions are notable for their biodiversity and endemism : Amazon River (Amazon–Ucayali–Tambo–Ené– Apurimac 6,400 km (4,000 mi) to 6,500 km (4,000 mi) (Period: 1971–2000)173,272.6 m /s (6,119,060 cu ft/s) (Period: 1928–1996)176,177 m /s (6,221,600 cu ft/s) (Period: 1903–2023)260,000 m /s (9,200,000 cu ft/s) The Amazon River ( UK : / ˈ æ m ə z ən / , US : / ˈ æ m ə z ɒ n / ; Spanish : Río Amazonas , Portuguese : Rio Amazonas ) in South America

9844-568: The social and religious development of higher-altitude civilizations like the Muisca and Incas . Early human settlements were typically based on low-lying hills or mounds. Shell mounds were the earliest evidence of habitation; they represent piles of human refuse (waste) and are mainly dated between 7500 BC and 4000 BC. They are associated with ceramic age cultures ; no preceramic shell mounds have been documented so far by archaeologists . Artificial earth platforms for entire villages are

9951-453: The total area of remaining rainforests on Earth , and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees in about 16,000 species. More than 30 million people of 350 different ethnic groups live in the Amazon, which are subdivided into 9 different national political systems and 3,344 formally acknowledged indigenous territories . Indigenous peoples make up 9% of

10058-482: The total population, and 60 of the groups remain largely isolated. Large scale deforestation is occurring in the forest, creating different harmful effects. Economic losses due to deforestation in Brazil could be approximately 7 times higher in comparison to the cost of all commodities produced through deforestation. In 2023, the World Bank published a report proposing a non-deforestation based economic program in

10165-522: The tropics. During the Oligocene , for example, the rainforest spanned a relatively narrow band. It expanded again during the Middle Miocene , then retracted to a mostly inland formation at the last glacial maximum . However, the rainforest still managed to thrive during these glacial periods , allowing for the survival and evolution of a broad diversity of species. During the mid-Eocene , it

10272-517: The upper Amazon, now known as the Solimões, for a further 1,200 km (746 mi) to its confluence with the Rio Negro (near modern Manaus ), which they reached on 3 June 1542. Regarding the initial mission of finding cinnamon, Pizarro reported to the king that they had found cinnamon trees, but that they could not be profitably harvested. True cinnamon ( Cinnamomum Verum ) is not native to South America. Other related cinnamon-containing plants (of

10379-459: The upper part of the trees of the sombre forests appear. Near the mouth of the Rio Negro to Serpa, nearly opposite the river Madeira, the banks of the Amazon are low, until approaching Manaus, they rise to become rolling hills. The Lower Amazon begins where the darkly colored waters of the Rio Negro meets the sandy-colored Rio Solimões (the upper Amazon), and for over 6 km (3.7 mi) these waters run side by side without mixing . At Óbidos,

10486-457: The vast rainforest, such as the Urarina . In the late 1600s, Czech Jesuit Father Samuel Fritz , an apostle of the Omagus established some forty mission villages. Fritz proposed that the Marañón River must be the source of the Amazon, noting on his 1707 map that the Marañón "has its source on the southern shore of a lake that is called Lauricocha , near Huánuco ." Fritz reasoned that the Marañón

10593-717: The wet forests in Africa and Asia. As the largest tract of tropical rainforest in the Americas, the Amazonian rainforests have unparalleled biodiversity . One in ten known species in the world lives in the Amazon rainforest. This constitutes the largest collection of living plants and animal species in the world . The region is home to about 2.5 million insect species , tens of thousands of plants, and some 2,000 birds and mammals . To date, at least 40,000 plant species, 2,200 fishes , 1,294 birds, 427 mammals, 428 amphibians, and 378 reptiles have been scientifically classified in

10700-716: The world's species may live in these forests, where a square kilometer may be home to more than 1,000 tree species. These forests are found around the world, particularly in the Indo-Malayan Archipelago , the Amazon Basin , and the African Congo Basin . The perpetually warm, wet climate makes these environments more productive than any other terrestrial environment on Earth and promotes explosive plant growth. A tree here may grow over 23 m (75 ft) in height in just 5 years. From above,

10807-418: The world's terrestrial primary productivity and 10% of the carbon stores in ecosystems – of the order of 1.1 × 10 metric tonnes of carbon. Amazonian forests are estimated to have accumulated 0.62 ± 0.37 tons of carbon per hectare per year between 1975 and 1996. In 2021 it was reported that the Amazon for the first time emitted more greenhouse gases than it absorbed. Though often referenced as producing more than

10914-536: The world. The Amazon was initially known by Europeans as the Marañón , and the Peruvian part of the river is still known by that name, as well as the Brazilian state of Maranhão , which contains part of the Amazon. It later became known as Rio Amazonas in Spanish and Portuguese. The name Rio Amazonas was reportedly given after native warriors attacked a 16th-century expedition by Francisco de Orellana . The warriors were led by women, reminding de Orellana of

11021-437: Was 18% higher than in the previous five years (19,018 km or 7,343 sq mi per year). Although deforestation declined significantly in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2014, there has been an increase to the present day. Brazil's President, Jair Bolsonaro, has supported the relaxation of regulations placed on agricultural land. He has used his time in office to allow for more deforestation and more exploitation of

11128-403: Was a prominent proponent of this idea, as described in her book Amazonia: Man and Culture in a Counterfeit Paradise . She claimed that a population density of 0.2 inhabitants per square kilometre (0.52/sq mi) is the maximum that can be sustained in the rainforest through hunting, with agriculture needed to host a larger population. However, recent anthropological findings have suggested that

11235-583: Was flourishing along the Amazon in the 1540s. The Pre-Columbian agriculture in the Amazon Basin was sufficiently advanced to support prosperous and populous societies. It is believed that civilization was later devastated by the spread of diseases from Europe, such as smallpox . This civilization was investigated by the British explorer Percy Fawcett in the early twentieth century. The results of his expeditions were inconclusive, and he disappeared mysteriously on his last trip. His name for this lost civilization

11342-487: Was the City of Z . Since the 1970s, numerous geoglyphs have been discovered on deforested land dating between AD 1–1250, furthering claims about Pre-Columbian civilizations. Ondemar Dias is accredited with first discovering the geoglyphs in 1977, and Alceu Ranzi is credited with furthering their discovery after flying over Acre . The BBC's Unnatural Histories presented evidence that the Amazon rainforest, rather than being

11449-513: Was the Amazon or the Orinoco River , which runs more or less parallel to the Amazon further north. Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira was the first European to travel up the entire river. He arrived in Quito in 1637, and returned via the same route. From 1648 to 1652, Portuguese Brazilian bandeirante António Raposo Tavares led an expedition from São Paulo overland to the mouth of

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